This invention relates to a transfer apparatus with which an image recorded digitally by a digital still camera (DSC), video camera, a personal computer or the like is displayed on image display means of transmission type such as a liquid-crystal display device (LCD) and which transfers the displayed image to a light-sensitive recording medium such as an instant photographic film that forms color by illumination with light (this process may be called xe2x80x9cimage formationxe2x80x9d).
Conventionally, various methods are known to transfer, print or otherwise record digitally recorded images onto recording media and they include an ink-jet recording system having dot-like printing heads, a laser recording system and a thermal recording system.
The ink-jet technology has several problems such as prolonged printing step, high likelihood of ink plugging and inability to perform precise printing without the receiving paper getting moist with ink.
In laser recording, lenses and other expensive optical components are required, causing the problem of increased equipment cost. Both the laser recording and thermal recording processes suffer the problem of increased power consumption and hence are unsuitable for use with mobile devices.
A problem that is common to the transfer apparatuses operating on the three recording methods and which becomes particularly noticeable in the ink-jet technology when the printing density increases is the complexity of the drive and control mechanisms and the increase in the size and cost of the apparatuses. Added to this is the problem of prolonged printing.
Under these circumstances, there have been proposed transfer apparatuses in which the image to be transferred is displayed on a liquid-crystal display device (hereunder abbreviated as LCD) and then transferred onto a light-sensitive recording medium such as an instant film at 1xc3x97 magnification, thereby simplifying the system configuration and reducing the product cost (see, for example, JP 2002-196424 A, JP 2002-196425 A and JP 2002-196426 A).
FIG. 9 is a schematic side view showing in section an outline of a prior art transfer apparatus. As shown, the prior art transfer apparatus comprises a backlight unit 100 having a rod of lamp 122 as a light source, a perforated plate 120 having a large number of through-holes 121 to produce generally parallel light, a liquid-crystal display device (LCD) 130 for displaying a digitally recorded image, a film pack 150 having a multiple of light-sensitive films 140 contained in a removable film case 151, and a main case 160 enclosing all the components mentioned above.
The main case 160 includes a roller pair 161 for drawing an exposed film and spreading a processing solution on it, a slot 162 through which the exposed film is taken out of the main case 160, and backup depression pins 163 for urging a stack of light-sensitive films 140 toward the LCD 130. The roller pair 161 is mounted in a position facing a slot 153 in the film pack 150 (or film case 151) through which the exposed film is taken out.
The LCD 130 and the film pack 150 as it contains a stack of light-sensitive films 140 in the film case 151 are shown enlarged in FIG. 10. As FIG. 10 shows, the film case 151 has a light-shielding rib 152 that not only prevents the light-sensitive films 140 from being exposed to light but also retains them to be confined in the interior of the film case 151.
In the prior art, the LCD 130 has required the outermost periphery of the image display area to be set aside in a width of about 4-5 mm for providing a sealing member to establish liquid-tightness, wiring, and any other necessary elements. To meet this need, the LCD 130 is usually made larger than the film case 151 as shown in FIG. 10.
In consequence, the LCD 130 and the light-sensitive film 140 are not in contact but are spaced apart by a distance of d and this has been held as the condition for producing a transfer apparatus that is easy to handle in practical applications.
The following is a specific description of the LCD 130. FIG. 11 is a plan view of the LCD 130 and FIG. 12 is a schematic cross section showing the structure of the LCD 130.
As FIG. 11 shows, the LCD 130 has a liquid-crystal layer 104 (see FIG. 12) held between two opposed glass substrates 102 and 106, with a polarizing plate 101 (also see FIG. 12) provided on top of the glass substrate 102 which is closer to an image display screen 101a. An image is displayed on the surface of the polarizing plate 101, namely, on the image display screen 101a. The glass substrate 106 is provided on the back side of the LCD 130 that is away from the glass substrate 102 which is closer to the image display screen 101a. The glass substrate 106 has a larger area than the glass substrate 102 which is closer to the image display screen 101a and provided in its peripheral edge portion are wiring areas 110 for providing wiring or other necessary devices, etc. Connected to the wiring areas 110 are a flexible wiring 112 and other elements.
The image display screen 101a of the LCD 130 shown in FIG. 11 may be rectangular, with the ratio of its shorter side Y to the longer side X to the diagonal line L being typically 3:4:5.
We next describe the structure of the LCD 130. As shown in FIG. 12, the LCD 130 comprises the polarizing plate 101, glass substrate 102, electrode 103, liquid-crystal layer 104, electrode 105, glass substrate 106 and a film of polarizing plate 107, and these components are placed one on another in that order, with the glass substrate 102 being closer to the image display screen 101a and the glass substrate 106 being on the back side. The liquid-crystal layer 104 is sandwiched between the glass substrates 102 and 106 which, in turn, are held between the polarizing plates 101 and 107. Provided between the glass substrate 102 and the electrode 103 are R, G and B color filters 108R, 108G and 108B, as well as a black matrix 109. Needless to say, the LCD 130 has other elements including an alignment layer (not shown), as is well known in the art. In the case of a TFT LCD, the electrode 103 is a common electrode whereas the electrode 105 serves as a display electrode, a gate electrode, etc.
As is clear from FIGS. 11 and 12, the image display screen 101a of the LCD 130 is determined by specifications with respect to its size and the relative proportions of the shorter and longer sides. The light-sensitive recording medium to which an image is to be transferred also comes in various sizes with a great variety for the relative proportions of the shorter and longer sides. As a result, if one attempts to record the LCD-displayed image on the light-sensitive recording medium at 1xc3x97 magnification, inconveniences may potentially occur as exemplified by the displayed image being beyond the image forming area of the light-sensitive recording medium or the transferred image coming out smaller than the image forming area. In order to avoid these problems, it is desired for the above-described prior art transfer apparatus that the image display screen 101a of the LCD 130 and the light-sensitive recording medium are adjusted to become equal in size.
However, if the manufacturer of the conventional transfer apparatus wants to have the size of the image display screen 101a of the LCD 130 match the size of the light-sensitive recording medium, it is not always possible to use a commercial LCD and a custom-made product is often required. As a result, a huge initial investment is needed, leading to an undesirably large increase in the price of the transfer apparatus as the end product.
In the other case where the light-sensitive recording medium is manufactured such that it matches the size of the LCD 130, initial investment is also required in various jobs including RandD of the light-sensitive recording medium, manufacture of the film container and the assembling step, again leading to an undesirably large increase in the price of the transfer apparatus as the end product.
As a further problem, spacing the LCD from the light-sensitive film by a specified distance as shown in FIG. 10 has been a disadvantage from the viewpoint of producing a sharp image since the resulting diffusion of light causes a blurry image. However, the above-described transfer apparatus has the light-shielding rib 152 on the film case 151 and the LCD 130 cannot be made any smaller since a certain width must be allowed for around the image display area in order to establish wiring, etc; for these and other reasons, it has been impossible to bring the LCD closer to the light-sensitive film such that their gap is smaller than the distance d shown in FIG. 10.
Conventionally, this problem has been dealt with by, for example, decreasing the thickness of the glass substrate in the LCD which is closer to the light-sensitive film. However, this method is not perfect and it has been desired to bring the image display screen of the LCD even closer to the light-sensitive film so that one can obtain a sharp image with greater ease.
The present invention has been accomplished under those circumstances and its first object is to provide a transfer apparatus with which an image of interest can be transferred to a light-sensitive recording medium in conformity with the image forming area of the latter and which requires no extra cost to manufacture.
A second object of the invention is to provide a transfer apparatus in which the image display screen of an LCD is brought sufficiently closer to the light-sensitive film than it has been in the prior art that a sharp image can be produced.
The first object of the present invention can be attained by its first aspect, in which it provides a transfer apparatus comprising: a light source; an image display unit of transmission type having an image display area that is opposed to an image forming area of a light-sensitive recording medium; and an image processing section by means of which either a size of an image to be displayed in said image display area or a display position of said image or both are adjusted prior to image display in accordance with either a size of said image forming area of said light-sensitive recording medium or a relative position of said image forming area with respect to said image display area or both, wherein said light source, said image display unit and said light-sensitive recording medium are arranged in a direction of travel of light from said light source, and said image displayed in the image display area of said image display unit is transferred to said image forming area of said light-sensitive recording medium, either directly or via an image projecting unit, by means of said light passing through said image display unit.
In such a transfer apparatus according to the present invention, it is preferable that said image displayed in the image display area of said image display unit is transferred directly to said image forming area of said light-sensitive recording medium by means of said light passing through said image display unit.
It is also preferable that said image displayed in the image display area of said image display unit is transferred to said image forming area of said light-sensitive recording medium via said image projecting unit by means of said light passing through said image display unit.
It is also preferable that said image display area of said image display unit is larger than said image forming area of said light-sensitive recording medium.
Preferably, when said size of the image to be displayed in said image display area is greater than said size of said image forming area, said image processing section reduces said image to be displayed to match said size of said image forming area and brings a center of said image to be displayed into agreement with a center of said image forming area in the direction of travel of the light from said light source before said image is displayed.
Preferably, when said size of the image to be displayed in said image display area is smaller than said size of said image forming area, said image processing section enlarges said image to be displayed to match said size of said image forming area and brings a center of said image to be displayed into agreement with a center of said image forming area in the direction of travel of the light from said light source before said image is displayed.
Preferably, when said size of the image to be displayed in said image display area is equal to said size of said image forming area, said image processing section brings a center of said image to be displayed into agreement with a center of said image forming area in the direction of travel of the light from said light source before said image is displayed.
The second object of the present invention can be attained by its second aspect, in which it provides a transfer apparatus comprising: a light source; an image display unit of transmission type having an image display screen; and a light-sensitive recording medium accommodating unit that contains one or more light-sensitive recording media and which has an opening for exposing a light-sensitive recording medium as it is opposed to the image display screen of said image display unit and an outer frame into which said image display unit is fitted, wherein said light source, said image display unit and said light-sensitive recording medium are arranged in a direction of travel of light from said light source, said image displayed by said image display unit is transferred to said light-sensitive recording medium by exposing said light-sensitive recording medium to said light passing through said image display unit and said image display unit is so adapted that it is at least fitted into said outer frame of said light-sensitive recording medium accommodating unit.
Preferably, a rib is provided on a periphery of said opening for exposing said light-sensitive recording medium of said light-sensitive recording medium accommodating unit in order to shield light from said light-sensitive recording medium and said image display unit is fitted into a space defined by an inner surface of said rib.
Preferably, at least two of four peripheral sides of said image display screen of said image display unit are smaller in width than the other two.
According to the first aspect of the invention, an image to be displayed on the image display means can be transferred to the image forming area of the light-sensitive recording medium with its size and display position being properly adjusted, so that image transfer can be accomplished in the correct position and size on the light-sensitive recording medium. In this case, the image display area of the image display means and the image forming area of the light-sensitive recording medium need not be matched to each other in terms of size and display position, so the constraint by the size of the image display means to be used in the transfer apparatus is sufficiently decreased to reduce the cost of the transfer apparatus as the end product.
According to the second aspect of the invention, the image display screen of the LCD and the light-sensitive film can be brought closer to each other than in the prior art, thus enabling a sharp enough image to be produced. Given a sharp image, the aspect ratio (thickness to hole diameter ratio) of the perforated plate can be reduced, for example, from 12 through 8 to 6. This provides ease in fabricating a perforated plate that is inexpensive and which permits more light to pass through, offering the advantage of smaller power consumption.